Glengarry District High School Gaels Reach the Finals, PDCI Plays in Semifinals at EOSSAA Boys' Junior A Volleyball Championship

By Mark Calder

(Perth)
- The Glengarry District High School Gaels reached the finals Wednesday
at the Eastern Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association (EOSSAA)
Boys’ Junior A Volleyball Championship, only to be defeated by École
Secondaire Catholique de Plantagenet.

The Gaels came through a
hard-fought first set to win 31-29, benefitting from unforced errors by
an otherwise disciplined Plantagenet team, said Greg Anderson, the
co-convener of the tournament. However, the Gaels went down in the final
two sets 25-20 and 15-10.

“Plantagenet played a great game,”
conceded Gaels’ Coach Randi Tolhurst. “They were able to take advantage
of some of our weaknesses and scored quite a few points on
tips. Plantagenet had also come out of a great semifinal game with
momentum.

“We could have had better court coverage, especially on tips. We also missed a few serves at key points.”

Tolhurst
stressed she was proud of her team’s success at the tournament, adding
Captain Dove Rickerd continued to show leadership on the court.

“His
enthusiasm and passion for the game is the reason we were at EOSSAA in
the first place,” said Tolhurst. “It's contagious and the boys all
worked hard throughout the season. On the court, his leadership also
showed. He has amazing spikes that are very hard for other teams to
defend against.”

The hometown Perth and District Collegiate
Institute (PDCI) Blue Devils fell earlier to Plantagenet in the
semifinals 26-24 and 25-20, when Plantagenet played arguably their best
match of the tournament.

“They were flawless,” said Anderson, who is also the PDCI coach. “They made no errors and poked a lot of holes in our defence.”

“And they played really well defensively. They were very good at anticipating where the ball was going to go.”

PDCI
got strong play in the semis from middle hitter Jack Shannon, who kept
the pressure on Plantagenet despite tight scores throughout the match.

“He was hitting balls hard (throughout) which is something guys tend to stop doing when games are tense.”

Other stand-out play in the tournament came from PDCI setter Noah Sullivan and Right Side Hitter Winston Mavraganis.